Glossary Term – Organization

The First Continental Congress was the unified body of colonial delegates that met in September 1774 to determine the colonial response to Parliament’s passage of the Intolerable Acts (or Coercive Acts). All the colonies except Georgia were represented in the First Continental Congress. Fifty-six delegates met in Philadelphia. The meeting adopted the Suffolk Resolves, sent its “Declaration of Rights and Grievances” to King George III, and agreed to meet again in a Second Continental Congress in May 1775.

Glossary Term – Organization

Anti-Federalists, including Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, and George Mason, opposed the Constitution of 1787 primarily based on the fear that it would create an overly powerful central government and elite ruling class. Though Anti-Federalists failed to prevent the adoption of the Constitution, their objections did lead to the inclusion of the Bill of Rights. In 1791, with the ascendancy of the Federalist Party, which favored strong government and a loose interpretation of the Constitution, Anti-Federalists and others who favored small...

Glossary Term – Organization

When asked what kind of government the Constitutional Convention had created, Benjamin Franklin replied: “A republic, if you can keep it.” Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution contains an unamendable provision that begins: “The United States shall guarantee to every state in this Union a republican form of government.” This refers to the principles and practices appropriate to a government in which ultimate authority resides in the people and in which elected officials and representatives are responsible to the people and must govern...

Glossary Term – Organization

The Constitution provided only a broad outline of the office and powers of the president. It was up to George Washington, as the first president, to define the office. It was unclear, for example, whether the president was to personally run the executive branch or, instead, serve as a constitutional monarch and delegate responsibility to the vice president and executive officers (the cabinet). Washington favored a strong and active role for the president. Modeling the executive branch along the lines of a general’s staff, Washington...

Glossary Term – Person

Gouverneur Morris (1752–1816) was a member of the Continental Congress, a signer of the Articles of the Confederation, and a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. As a framer of the Constitution, Morris advocated the creation of an executive branch and an electoral college. After the founding, Morris served as a minister to France and, later, in the Senate.

Glossary Term – Person

George Mason (1725–1792) was an American political leader from Virginia who opposed strong central government and supported protections for individual liberties. During the 1760s and 1770s, Mason vocally opposed British policies and called on colonists to oppose the Stamp Act in 1765. He drafted the Fairfax Resolves in 1774 and Virginia’s Declaration of Rights in 1776. His Declaration of Rights became a model for the Declaration of Independence. It also became a foundation for the Constitutional Bill of Rights adopted in 1791. At the...

Glossary Term – Person

John Dickinson (1732–1808) was the “penman of the revolution” who in 1768 published Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies, a pamphlet that opposed the Townshend Duties of 1767. Dickinson served as a member of the First and Second Continental Congresses. While he opposed oppressive acts of the British government, for a time he also advocated peaceful reconciliation with the Crown. He later served as president of the Annapolis Convention and as a delegate to to the Constitutional Convention...

Glossary Term – Person

John Jay (1745–1829) was a member of the Continental Congress (1774–1776, 1778–1779). He also served as that body’s president (1778–1779). He went on to hold a variety of diplomatic roles, and was one of the negotiators and signers of the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War. From 1784 to 1789, Jay was secretary of foreign affairs. He was also author, with Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, of The Federalist (1788), a landmark collection of essays promoting the US Constitution. In 1789, Jay accepted Washington’s...

Glossary Term – Person

Robert Morris (1734–1806) was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and the “financier of the American Revolution.” He also originated the plan for a national bank. Congress approved the establishment of the Bank of North America, which ultimately financed the war effort, stabilized the economy, and established the credit of the United States. Morris was appointed financial agent (the precursor of secretary of the treasury) of the United States and directed the operation of the new bank.

Glossary Term – Person

Richard Henry Lee (1732–1794) was one of the first colonial statesmen to call for independence from Great Britain. Born in Virginia and eduated in England, Lee served in the Virginia House of Burgesses from 1758 to 1775. He opposed British policies such as the Stamp Act and the Townshend Duties. He helped organize the First Continental Congress, and in the Second Continental Congress in 1776 proposed a resolution for declaring independence from Great Britain. Lee continued his political service in the Virginia House of Delegates and...